I’ve written this piece just after witnessing a total capitulation against an Arsenal side supposedly devoid of confidence and ideas. I say “supposedly” by looking at their first half displayy, and by the sound of ‘booing’ from the home fans who witnessed a first half belonging to Aston Villa.

That game just about sums up to me what it feels like supporting a team like Aston Villa. In the seemingly halcyon era of the early 1980s, we were Champions of Europe with a team of nobodies, in comparison to today when we have a team of household names, but also seem to be a team of also-rans.

I always wonder what it would be like to support a team like Manchester United, Chelsea, or even Arsenal, whose fans expect them to win every game. It must be amazing to support one of the so called “Big Four”, especially if you’re a local supporter, and not just a glory hunter. Maybe one day our time will come? My dream is for Villa to become the next Manchester City, and for Jose Mourinho to become our manager. Maybe it will always be just that – a dream?

In my lifetime, we’ve had our moments at Villa; the three trophies of the Ron Saunders era; the ‘Big Ron’ era wasn’t bad; the Martin O’Neill era certainly promised a lot. Now we are faced with topsy-turvy results, and poor performances from a bunch of guys who should be producing much more.

Blame the manager or the coaches, maybe, but the players some shoulder some of the blame, because most of them are much better than what we are seeing. There is some quality in the squad, for sure, but we have only seen that in patches. The first half against Arsenal on Sunday showed the best of Villa – superb defending at times, quality moves, and two great goals. We saw it again against Wolves in the second half, even if the first half of that game was shocking.

The second half against Arsenal showed we are lacking concentration at the back and,for me, we have two poor full-backs in Stephen Warnock and Alan Hutton. As for one of our goals that we have away, what was Darren Bent doing with his challenge? Hutton especially doesn’t seem to look like a typical full back; he’s too tall, lacks any sort of pace, can’t cross, doesn’t seem to want to get forward and can’t defend.

Warnock seems to be a shadow of his former self of a couple of years ago. Alex McLeish must address this area and sooner, rather than later.

The reality is that we should have won that game. It was in the bag but the way Arsenal came out in the second half surprised everyone, even if Villa gave away two silly penalties.

Like all Villa fans, I feel gutted and sick that we lost that game. Everyone was full of confidence leading up to the game, and at half time we were in dreamland. Then we saw the other side of our team which we’ve seen many times before. I don’t suppose we are any different to any other club outside of the “Big Four”, but it’s still galling. As Villa fans, we’ve seen it all too many times – remember Leicester City at home in the League Cup in the 90s? 4–0 up with 15 minutes to go and we concede four goals. The same happened at Spurs a few years ago. The list is endless.

All I can say, in the face of another loss it this – “keep the faith.”

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